Saturday, May 17, 2008

Field Clover (Trifolium sp)


Field Clover (Trifolium sp)

My best guess is that this is Trifolium campestre, but maybe not. According to the USDA, there are 236 genera in Fabaceae (the pea family) and 170 species in Trifolium (clover). Many look quite similar. Regardless, like most (all?) clover, it is an invasive weed. It is native to Eurasia and Africa and was brought to North America to serve as fodder and for soil improvement. Since its introduction it has spread throughout most of the United States and Canada, except for a few states in the arid Southwest. You might as well enjoy its cluster of little yellow flowers because field clover is fully naturalized and is here to stay.

Sources and Links:
Missouri Plants
USDA Distribution Map & Plant Profile
University of Washington Burke Museum of Natural History

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5 comments:

Tom said...

I can not recall seeing a yellow clover flower before over here.. I know we have purple clovers and light cream ones but I can't recall yellow. I will keep my eyes open.

I had a few posts to catch up on today and each was of great interest and informative.. your pictures and what you write here inspire me and as helped to open my eyes to something I have long taken for granted and not given a second thought to.
Thank you Marvin

Small City Scenes said...

I have little white clover in my flower gardens. they travel on runners and are murder to weed..
MB

lv2scpbk said...

Beautiful photo.

smilnsigh said...

I've never seen yellow Clover, us this way. Pretty...

And yes, this is *whimpy me,* who avoided the bugie pics, and came to the flower pic! -grin-

Mari-Nanci
Smilnsigh
Photos-City-Mine

Texas Travelers said...

Lots of yellow clover(s) here in NE Texas. We photographed some yellow clovers and vetches to identify when we got home from a trip to Hagerman NWR.

I looked them up and said, "Yep, they're clover and vetch".

Wow, there are a lot of look-alikes. Need it in hand with some good magnification to separate species of some of them.

I also liked your scorpionfly and lacewing articles. Good information and photographs....

Troy